REPLACE Function

REPLACE replaces part of a text string, based on the number of characters you specify, with a different text string.

Syntax

REPLACE(<old_text>, <start_num>, <num_chars>, <new_text>)

Parameters

Term

Definition

old_text

The string of text that contains the characters you want to replace, or a reference to a column that contains text.

start_num

The position of the character in old_text that you want to replace with new_text.

num_chars

The number of characters that you want to replace.

Warning

If the argument, num_chars, is a blank or references a column that evaluates to a blank, the string for new_text is inserted at the position, start_num, without replacing any characters. This is the same behavior as in Excel.

new_text

The replacement text for the specified characters in old_text.

Property Value/Return Value

A text string.

Remarks

Whereas Microsoft Excel has different functions for use with single-byte and double-byte character languages, DAX uses Unicode and therefore stores all characters as the same length.

This DAX function may return different results when used in a model that is deployed and then queried in DirectQuery mode. For more information about semantic differences in DirectQuery mode, see  https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=219171.

Example

The following formula creates a new calculated column that replaces the first two characters of the product code in column, [ProductCode], with a new two-letter code, OB.

=REPLACE('New Products'[Product Code],1,2,"OB")

See Also

Reference

SUBSTITUTE Function

Other Resources

Text Functions (DAX)